Two Different Styles Of Play

So Fable 2 came out this week and found its way into my grubby little mitts by means so twisted, dark and unholy that I dare not speak of it. The game has proven to be a most brutal mistress, demanding attention at all hours of the day and coercing me to skip classes in order to reveal in her forbidden acts of pleasure. It's been fun.

Last night my wife wrest the controller from my grip to give the game a try, and she promptly became just as addicted as I, but not in the same way. For me Fable has always been a way to not only kill massive amounts of baddies (a need that is met by almost every game I play) but is more about giving my darker and eviler impulses a healthy outlet, must like a GTA title. We've all had days where we would just like to chop the head off of the person who just insulted us, and it Fable you can, and the repercussions are minor, until the guards whoop up on you and throw you out of town(or you can just pay them to look the other way). My wife seems not to have these darker impulses. Where I would look for the way to earn the most money or XP in a given situation, her instinct is to help all those in need and plays the game in a very heroic way that reflects this. Case in point, early on in the game you are tasked with destroying a bandit camp that has been harassing the local trade road. After killing the leader of the bandits you find a group of people in a cage that had been caught for "forced labor". A man soon approaches to inform you that he has already paid for them and will be taking them with him. Not a fan of slavery in any form, I promptly chopped the man's head off. My wife on the other hand merely open the cage and let the slaves escape. While she did have to kill the man when he responded by attacking her, her first impulse was to let him go. I find this way of tempering her might with mercy to be interesting and yet another of the many things that I love about her so much. Weird, huh.

Also got to play my first game of 4th edition D&D this week. The rules are all still a bit vague to us but we muddled through. Our heroes fought their way to the small town of Fellspar, a town that has been beset by kobold raiding parties. Hired by the Storm Warden to end this, they found themselves infiltrating a cult of dragon worshipers and now are trying to find and kill the leader of the said cult. I plan on doing a more detailed synopsis on this blog or the HARPA web page when I get that up. I started the actually coding tonight and should have it up and running(albeit in a limited capacity) before the end of the year.

Well, I now find myself hearing the siren's song coming from my X-Box. Albion is beset by brutal monsters and evil men. Someone has to bring the harsh axe blade of justice down and sever the cruel mind from their rot filled hearts. Looks like that someone is me. Don't wait up.